Datacolor User to User Support Group.

Hi Group and CDT:

Today I profiled a few very different papers on an Epson 2400 with 
the standard K3 inkset.  They were Ilford Smooth Pearl and Arches 
Texture.  I dutifully made media checks, carefully reading the help 
first.  My system uses Win XP PRO.

Much to my surprise, VERY different media choices produced very 
little variation in results, or at least quite subtle ones.  My 
speculation is that perhaps that is because of the internal 
calibration inherent in the 2400 machine.

I carefully examined the printouts of the media charts with a loupe, 
and used the media choice that seemed (subtly) the best.  The 
subsequent profiles, however, came out bang on target, and required 
NO tweaking.

Has anyone else encountered this?  Am I doing something really 
dumb?  Any comments, CDT?

Jack Winberg

--- In colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com, Jack Winberg <jack.winberg@...> wrote:
> Much to my surprise, VERY different media choices produced very 
> little variation in results, or at least quite subtle ones.  My 
> speculation is that perhaps that is because of the internal 
> calibration inherent in the 2400 machine.
> Jack Winberg

I too have found media settings are fairly close to each other but I wanted to explore a 
little more. Epson's black usually comes in hard and fast, less so with the newest printers 
but I wanted to find the media setting that has smoothest black from 100% to 90%.

So I recently tested the "best" media setting for William Turner paper on my Epson 4800.

I printed a ten patch gray ramp from 100% to 90% with five media settings.

My Excel results are below for William Turner on an Epson 4800:

http://homepage.mac.com/johnvito/WilliamTurnerMediaSettings.png

From 100% to 90% only two media settings show linear density loss albeit stepped at
times. While the other three actually have spiked increases in density – called reversals – 
on some patches. For
example Epson's Enhanced has the same density at the following patches: 100%, 99% and 
97%. As
you can see the 98% patch has a lower density. Another reversal at 94%.

My choice is the UltraSmooth media setting, as it has the most linear path.